Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1986)
Page 8/The Battalion/Friday, February 7, 1986 Shakespeare’s genius remembered English Shakespearean troupe to visit A&.M in February By SONDRA PICKARD Staff Writer William Shakespeare and theater are alive and well at Texas A&M this spring as the Aggie Players host a semester-long calendar of events highlighted by a week’s residence and perfor mances by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The five members of England’s prestigious acting company, visiting A&M Feb. 17-21, will present performances of Shakespeare’s “Mea sure For Measure” Feb. 19 and 22 and “An Eve ning of Samuel Beckett” Feb. 20. Both will be performed at 8 p.m. in Rudder Theater. Often called a “dark” or “problem” comedy, “Measure For Measure” is described as a beauti ful combination of rowdy humor, sexual deceit and human understanding. It has been called “. . . a play as full of genius as it is of wisdom.” All 19 roles will be performed by the five actors. In “An Evening of Samuel Beckett,” the works of Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett are brought to life. The object of the evening’s en tertainment is to reacquaint the audience with Beckett’s distinctive language, his ear, his sense of timing and the range of what could be called his theatrical music. Beckett has been described by the New York Times as “. . . a playwright novelist and Nobel Laureate — a beacon of our age,” and as “. . . a comedian of chaos who can’t resist a joke.” Also included in the company’s residency is “Words, Words, Words: Hamlet and the Actor,” a free one-man show performed by company- member Paul Whitworth, which explores an ac tor’s preparation for Shakespeare’s most chal lenging role, “Hamlet.” Whitworth will give two performances of this production, one Feb. 18 and the other Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. in 102 Zachry. The Feb. 18 performance will include a dinner and workshops and the res ervation deadline is Feb. 14. Seating will be lim ited, so those interested are urged to call the Arts Council of Brazos Valley at 268-ARTS. The RSC residency is sponsored by the Alli ance for Creative Theatre, Education and Re search, a 10-year-old program that has brought British and American actors into contact with American university students on over 130 cam puses. Founded in 1960, the Royal Shakespeare Company has gained an international reputa tion for theatrical excellence in its stagings of Shakespeare, Pinter, the Greek tragedians, a va riety of Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists, and many contemporary British dramatists. The five members of the RSC performing at A&M are Lisa Harrow, Julian Curry, Stephen Jenn, Joseph Marcell and Whitworth. In addition to the public performances, the company will conduct over 30 workshops in a variety of humanities disciplines on campus and in local schools, giving students the opportunity to learn first-hand from the individual actors. All are invited to attend the workshops, but participation will be limited to those enrolled in the classes. A de tailed schedule of the workshops can be obtained in the Depart ment of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts. Dr. Bonnie Yarbrough, exec utive director of the Arts Council of Brazos Val ley, studied with the RSC at the Folger Institute in Washington about six years ago. Although the company actors are noted for their performance ability, Yarbrough said their teaching talent is just as highly renowned. “They’re all method actors, essentially the best in the world,” Yarbrough said. “They’re meticulous about their work. They’re historians, lecturers, actors, singers and dancers. They have a wide range of skills they bring into their work so that when they perform Shakespeare, they’re prepared much differently than most actors.” Yarbrough says education is the key emphasis of the RSC. “They’re actually trying to communicate with people out there what it is they go through to do a performance — what it means to be Hamlet on stage and why is it so challenging — rather than just reading the play,” she said. “It’s quite differ ent from any theater experience I think our community has ever seen.” Largely responsible for bringing the spirit of Shakespeare to A&M this semester is Dr. Roger Schultz, A&M director of theatre and associate professor of speech communications and theatre arts. He says A&M is the only school in the southwest to host the RSC this year. The primary sponsors of the Spring Semester of Shakespeare are the Aggie Players of Texas A&M, and to add to the performances of the RSC, the players will perform “A Cry of Players” Feb. 26, 2/, 28 and March 1. The play is described as “a charming and elo quent biography of William Shakespeare.” Also, “Twelfth Night,” described by John Ma sefield as “the most perfect comedy in the En glish language,” will be performed April 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26. Both plays will be in Rudder Forum at 8 p.m. On Sunday nights throughout the semester, a number of Shakespeare’s films will be shown at 7 p.m. in Kleberg Center for no charge. “Ham let” will be shown Sunday, and the remainder of the films include, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Macbeth,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “As You Like It.” On Wednesday nights, A&M scholars will be lecturing on various aspects of Shakespeare’s works. Professors from the departments of En glish, history, modern languages and speech communication and theatre arts will be rep resented. The next lecture, “The Royal Shakespeare Company: Who Are They and Why are They?” will be given by Dr. Michael Greenwald, asso ciate professor of speech communication and theatre arts, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. in 114 Blocker Building. Tickets for all productions can be obtained at the Rudder Box Office. Students and senior citi zens will receive a discount. More information on dates, times or locations of any of the produc tions, films or lectures can be acquired by calling the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts. Prof editing international Shakespeare bibliography By MARY ANN HARVEY Staff Writer No other literary figure at any time, writing in any language, in any country has attracted as much atten tion as William Shakespeare, a dis tinguished professor of English at Texas A&M says. Dr. Harrison T. Messerole says this is why he has become chief bib liographer and editor of the World Shakespeare Annotated Bibliogra phy. Although he has been collecting publications since 1975, this area of research is new to A&M. Messerole came to the University in July after teaching at Penn State University for 28 years. It was there that Messerole and his associate, Priscilla Letterman, began collecting publications on Shakespeare. Each year Messerole collects some 3,500 to 3,600 records of books, magazine articles, dissertations, vi deo tapes, movie productions and any other published material on or related to Shakespeare. Messerole says there is an interna tional interest in the famous play wright. And even though several countries have collected bibliogra phies on Shakespeare, Messerole says his is the only international pub lication. Other countries only pub lish a bibliography of their own works relating to Shakespeare. “We throw out a great big net “We throw out a great big net worldwide and haul it (records of works related to Shakespeare)in. ” — Dr. Harrison T. Messe role, distinguished profes sor of English at Texas A&M. worldwide and haul it in,” Messerole says. Messerole can read six languages, but has collected publications in about 65 languages. Because of this, he relies on the help of faculty and friends who are able to read different languages. “About one-half of our collection comes from around the world and the other half we generate oursel ves,” Messerole says. “We’re also very much dependent upon and grateful for the Sterling C. Evans Li brary. It is our laboratory.” However, the library can’t get ev erything published. For that reason, Messerole relies on the help of an in ternational com'mittee of about 40 scholars around the world. “These people undertake to look at the publications in their countries and pick up the relevant materials, record them and send them on to us,” Messerole says. “We then edit them, process them into our com puter system and then publish them.” The computer file is an important tool in Messerole’s organization of data. Letterman, Messerole’s asso ciate, works mainly with the com puter, recording publications and processing bibliographic informa tion. There is a hard copy library of ublications in Messerole’s office, ut the computer’s collection is a more complete source of informa tion. Messerole says he uses standard bibliographical data when collecting information on publications. “Then we write what is best called an abstract of it which can be any where from 30 to 300 words, de- “Sometimes we have to spend two or three min utes on a piece and some times two or three weeks. ” — Dr. Harrison T. Messe role. pending upon the intricacy of it,” Messerole says. “Sometimes we have to spend two or three minutes on a piece and sometimes two or three weeks.” The end result is a collection of the year’s publications on Shake speare and his writings. The Shake speare Quarterly, published by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, devotes one of its issues each year to Messerole’s collection of newly published bibliographies. Messerole is currently working on a cumulative bibliography that will cover publications on or relating to Shakespeare from 1958 to the pre sent. The publication, which will be a continuously growing record, will be complete later this spring or sum mer, Messerole says. “It will include approximately 90,000 books, articles, pamphlets and productions relevant to Shake speare,” he says. The cumulative bibliography, which will contain nearly 30 years of publications, will be broken down into volumes. Messerole says the first four volumes will cover 1958 to 1979. The last volume will cover 1980 to 1984. An additional volume, or addendum, v^ill be published ev ery five years after that. Messerole says these bibliogra phies have helped professors and students as well as people outside the University in learning more about Shakespeare. “It can be used as a research sour ce,” Messerole says. “We are an ar chive of material.” CHIO PHI FRATERITY RUSH SAT. FEB. 8 c “TREEHOUSE PARTY ROC O A I I V BEAUT! ■— 1 SUPPLY . 'V 0 ^ 5 ^ 81 Beau, y Suppl.es to, Saton and Home DOLLAR SAVER clipfo -&(. r*** -A\ *i Bring in>0, student I.D. and rece a discounts: Come In and Ask the Experts 4415 S. Texas Avenue Park Central SIC, next to Lubv’s 846-0260 an offer you can't refuse •M l| w w U, e CO u I •Bi 2 IS u w 33 o Godfather’s Wants To Help You Enjoy Your Free Time More. Just bring us your ticket stub from any school activity (sports, concerts, etc.) or theater ticket stubs and receive a LARGE pizza for the price of a medium. If you don't have any free time, take advantage of the great offers below. Conveniently located in Culpepper Plaza. Free Home Delivery 696-4166 696-4167 (Limited Delivery Area) a lot of pizza for the dougl Godfather s Godfather's Godfather 5 * v cU ' ' Pizza ■ Pizza GET $2 OFF . A LARGE PIZZA $1 OFF a medium pizza v 4J,d in ccmjufxiMwi with «nv nffm GET $3 OFF Any Large Thin Crust Pizza (Good on thin crust only) Not valid m conjunct.on with any oUier often S9.99 Family Meal Deal Any Large 1 Topping Pizza and a Quart of Soda For Only $9.99 Mi*!! llUh? 6"« Silxlx 4 ch*«* No cath v«J«e Not valid m conjunction with any other oflen Dria Divrrvfood* Inc 19115 Onljl) Godfather's Pizza Is Now Open in Post Oak Mall across from PHtt Theatre Buy Any entree at Regular Price and receive the second t for 1/2 Price 0“ Good only Sunday Feb 9 4-9 p.m. “The Best Fajita in Town Ask Anybody Who’s Been There” Another Ken Martin Family Restaurant the place to and be seen to advertise call 845-2611 Shop up to 30 unadvertised specials da Readfield Meats provides up to 30 unadvertised high quality meats cials everyday. Readfield also offers a variety of choice halal meals Shop Readfield today-quality meats at reasonable prices foro* years. Readfield IMEAXSH gj* Freezer Service 2701 Texas Avenue/Bryan (3 blocks north of Villa Maria)/822-t Why travel miles to take a dance class wi learn from the right here on campus? Aggie Wranglers Country & Western DaK Classes -Jitterbug Thurs. 6:30-7:45 p.m. -Intermediate Thurs. 8-9:15p.® -Beginning C# Tues. 6-7:15 All classes in theP# Sign u at the Pavilion the first day of classes For more information 846-3135 260-4007 764-6606